Damanaki, who was fighting powerful national
fishing lobbies to cut quotas for 47 species in the Atlantic and North
Sea where many stocks are over-exploited, added: "I would like to say I
think I can be satisfied."

Damanki said she believed "a healthy
level" could be reached for "almost all" stocks by 2015 now that fishing
nations were taking scientific advice on board.

"We can have
healthy stocks, more jobs and more income for our coastal communities.
It is not a dream. It can be done," she said.

In the end, the haddock catch in the
Irish Sea is to be cut 15 percent rather than the commission's proposed
55 percent, while the quota for sole in Channel waters was set at 6.0
percent rather than 14 percent.

Ministers left the talks on an
upbeat note, with France's Frederic Cuvillier hailing "quotas that
either rose or remained stable for the North Sea, Channel and Bay of
Biscay and Irish Sea."

Spain's Miguel Arias Canete said Madrid was 'very satisfied, because the agreement met all our demands."

But environmentalists generally were not impressed, although there was some talk of slight progress.

"EU fisheries ministers have not taken the steps needed to tackle overfishing in the North Sea," said WWF's Roberto Ferrigno.

The
ministers "have once again demonstrated that short-term interests of
their fisheries sector prevail over the safeguarding of fish stocks on
which the sector relies," he added.

Greenpeace welcomed the fact
that ministers for the first time were basing decisions on scientific
evidence but said "their measures remain too timid, with many quotas
still set above the recommended levels."

Environmentalists have
been pressing for reforms to allow stocks to recover above so-called
Maximum Sustainable Yields (MSY) -- the maximum amount of fish that can
be caught without compromising its ability to reproduce.

Damanaki
said she was satisfied with the deal as "for the great majority of the
stocks, we are going to reach Maximum Sustainable Yields in 2015."

This
was made possible because of improved scientific advice, with experts
now in possession of information on the state of 85 percent of fish
stocks, double the figure of the previous year.

"So what we have
decided today can give us a road map to reach Maximum Sustainable
Yields, the healthy level, for almost all stocks by 2015," she said.

Last
week, the Fisheries Committee of the European parliament approved
measures to fix quotas for major stocks on the basis of long-term
management rather than the overnight haggling that takes place in
Brussels each year.